Doing Business Blog - The World Bank Group

Reforming France's Ports

On May 21st, the French Senate passed the government's port reform bill, which foresees the transfer of cargo handling activities at France's ports to the private sector. Initiated by President Sarkozy shortly after his inauguration, the port reform is part of the government's ambitious reform agenda. The objective of the reform, as announced by Prime Minister Fillon last January, is to triple container capacity at French ports by 2015 and create 30,000 new jobs.

In spite of the significant gains expected from the reform, not everyone is happy about it. Since April, France's ports have had to endure a series of 24-hour rolling strikes by port workers unhappy at the prospect of transferring to the private sector. Organized by the National Federation of Ports and Docks, part of the powerful Confédération Générale du Travail, the strikes have increased port congestion causing long delays.

Going Dutch

About 18 months ago the Doing Business team was asked to study the Dutch regulatory reform program and make some suggestions about its future focus. The resulting report listed several ideas. Most important among those: to conduct surveys of businesses and ask what their main constraints are; to combine the (then) four different units in the Ministries of Finance and Economy into one regulatory reform group; to study the costs of some existing regulations, not just of new regulation; and to communicate the reforms through the views of business people, not the minister or other government officials.

I visited the Dutch Ministry of Finance recently and was shocked to find that all these ideas were implemented. It's so rare!

On second thought, I shouldn't be so surprised. The Dutch are already leaders in regulatory reform in Western Europe. They mean business.

Privatization of Building Control Proceedings

The Dealing with Licenses indicator of Doing Business measures the administrative hurdles associated with building a new warehouse in the main economic center of 181 countries. Every year the Doing Business report records reforms in countries around the world that make it easier for builders to get their new constructions approved faster.

Over the last decade, building control systems in Europe have undergone significant changes. In the past, public building offices were the only ones allowed to establish building standards and issue building permits, perform inspections, and issue completion certificate if new constructions were in compliance with these standards. Fiscal constraints of municipalities and dissatisfaction with lengthy processes initiated a trend towards liberalization of aspects of building control proceedings.

Santa Claus Comes to Town

In a speech prior to the European Convention on the Future of Europe in 2002, the former Romanian Minister of Public Information commented that most Romanians viewed the European Union in four distinct ways: Santa Claus with his bag full of goodies; a museum with free movement; a big supermarket; or a rolling stone threatening to crash them.

As a result of European Union (EU) accession, Romania will receive a financial boost of approximately 19.667 billion Euros. This sum will be spent under the 2007-2013 program. The goal of this program is to pursue one of the Union’s enshrined missions, namely, to reduce disparities between levels of development in various EU regions.

Seven operational programs were set up last year including in economic competitiveness, regional development, transportation, environment, human resource performance, administrative capacity and technical assistance.

EU Executive to Shake up Notaries Services

Last week, the European Commission (EC) published a landmark study by the Centre of European Law and Politics at Bremen University. Legal fees are a small fraction – between 0.34% and 2.94%- of an average real estate transaction, but vary widely across EU member states.

Among other interesting results, this study shows that I would be paying three times more in legal fees in France than in the Netherlands for the same €250,000 house. Why would my French friends be willing to pay more for the same service?

The European Commission is not opposed to all regulation of professional services if there are legitimate arguments for it, e.g. consumer protection. But it requires a strict proportionality test to justify a more restrictive regulation. Not meeting this test could jeopardize the basics of the European single market.